About Us
Who We Are
The Mallarmé Chamber Players are a flexible ensemble of professional musicians based in Durham, North Carolina, whose mission is to enrich the lives of the community through outstanding chamber music performance. The ensemble distinguishes itself in the community by its innovative educational programs, its commitment to creative collaboration with other organizations, its creation of significant new work and its dedication to serve a diverse population.
Created in 1984 by musicians Jane Hawkins and Anna Ludwig Wilson working with poet and arts administrator Margaret DeMott, the ensemble’s name comes from Stéphane Mallarmé, the 19th-century French poet and philosopher who believed that true art is created through a unity of music, dance, literature and the visual arts. In keeping with their namesake, Mallarmé performances are often interdisciplinary and have been praised by critics and audiences as innovative, eclectic and of the highest artistic quality.
With the most gifted artists from North Carolina Mallarmé Chamber Players perform programs that include rarely heard works from the traditional chamber music repertoire that celebrate the diversity in our community by featuring the music of African American, Asian, Latino and women composers. Mallarmé has commissioned over 35 new works by American composers. They have created new contours in the landscape of chamber music through partnerships with artists of many different disciplines. Through their eclectic education programs they have developed a new model for community-based arts organizations.
For Mallarmé’s 25th anniversary season in 2008-09, Suzanne Rousso, violist and former orchestra administrator, took the helm as the new artistic director of the ensemble. 2019-20 is Mallarmé’s 36th year!
2019-20 Board of Directors and Staff
Nancy Clapp-Channing, co-chair
Florence Nash, co-chair
Ruth Cox
Kim Demery
Celia Dickerson, treasurer
Michael Fisher
Jeanetta Hopkins
Jacqueline Nappi, secretary
Tony Sprinkle
Baron Tymas
Suzanne Rousso, artistic director, suzanne at mallarmemusic.org
Mickaella Guarascio, operations manager, mickaella at mallarmemusic.org
Featured Artist
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Baroque historic performance practice, experimental contemporary music and even pop and country. She has performed with the NC HIP Festival and sung backup vocals for pop artist My Brightest Diamond and with country favorites The Red Clay Ramblers.
Moore regularly stars with North Carolina Opera where she “garnered the biggest ovations” for her performance of Micaela in Carmen, in Aida her “Priestess was hauntingly ethereal.” (N&O), in Brittenʼs The Turn of the Screw, “The star of the show was Andrea Edith Moore as the Governess, with beautiful and clear tones, every word and phrase distinct, and convincingly more and more distracted as the drama progressed.” (N&O)
Moore has triumphed with Maestros Vladimir Ashkenazy, Philip Cave, Keitaro Harada, Klaus Dieter Jung, Andreas Mitisek, Lorenzo Muti, Timothy Myers, Gerard Schwartz, and David Zinman and stage-directors Colin Graham, Keturah Stickann, Garnett Bruce, Vera Calabria, Candace Evans, Marc Verzatt and John Lehmeyer. She has been a principle artist with North Carolina Opera, Hamburger Kammeroper, Central City Opera, Aspen Music Festival, Greensboro Opera, Long Leaf Opera Festival, Yale Opera, and Peabody Opera Theater. Moore has concertized with Richard Tucker Foundation, El Paso Symphony, North Carolina Master Chorale, Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, Duke Symphony, Eastern Music Festival and made notable debuts in Buenos-Aires at Teatro-Colon and Rio de Janeiroʼs Teatro-Municipal.
Moore stays on the pulse of new music and was a 2018 fellow with the Grammy Award winning ensemble Eighth Blackbird at their Blackbird Creative Lab.
Committed to creating and performing the music of living composers she commissioned, produced and premiered Family Secrets: Kith and Kin by Daniel Thomas Davis with seven new texts by world-renowned authors. The world-premiere staging by Francesca Talenti occurred in 2018 with NCO and she is in the process of recording the work with 5 time Grammy Award winning producer Elaine Martone for her debut album. “The roles of Girl, Mother, and Daughter were sung by Moore, who continues to wow audiences with her powerful and flexible soprano voice, her acting ability, her dedication and drive, and her charm that enables such projects as this to be successful.” (CVNC)
In June of 2020 Moore will premiere Through the Window a new song cycle by composer Kenneth Frazelle with Mallarme Chamber Players. Additionally, Moore has premiered works by Judah Adashi, Allen Anderson, David Arcus, Stephen Chatman, Daniel Thomas Davis, Marjorie Merryman, Eric Schwartz, Martin Suckling and Zachary Wadsworth. She has served as a vocal advisor with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and has worked intimately with modern dance choreographer Ros Warby. She sang the role of Sara in Jennifer Higdon’s new opera Cold Mountain; the 2017 world premiere of Eric Schwartz’s live film-score accompanying The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; Dianarah in Patrick Morganelli’s inventive opera Hercules vs. Vampires screened with the film “Hercules in the Haunted World” with NCO.
Moore is a prize-winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a grant recipient from the Anna Sosenko Assist Trust and has been twice awarded the Yale School of Music Alumni Award. For her commission Family Secrets: Kith and Kin Moore was granted the Performing Arts Special Activities Fund from UNC-CH and the Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artist Grant from the Durham and NC Arts Councils.
Ms. Moore holds degrees from Yale University, the Peabody Conservatory of Music at The Johns Hopkins University and UNCSA. She served on the voice faculty of UNC at Chapel Hill for seven years.
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